Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior setting up peace blockade at Southampton's Marchwood military port stopping military hardware leaving for the Gulf.
The Rainbow Warrior was surrounded by six Ministry of Defense
and police boats and up to twenty police boarded the ship just
after 10:00 pm Saturday night. By 3:00 am they had cut the anchor
chain and towed the ship out of the way.
Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior had set up a peace
blockade at Southampton's Marchwood military port stopping military
hardware leaving for the Gulf. The Rainbow Warrior was anchored
directly in front of the military port where supply vessel 'Dart 8'
was loading with helicopters, tanks and jeeps.
The peace blockade began Saturday following Defence Secretary
Geoff Hoon's failure to get a High Court injunction banning the
Rainbow Warrior from the area. The High Court Judge granted an
interim injunction stipulating that Greenpeace must not board or
touch the Ministry of Defense chartered vessels.
A Greenpeace campaigner on the site, William Peden, says we have
acted completely peacefully during the course of this anti-war
protest and believes that the Secretary of State direction is
unlawful and an abuse of power. "We believe the government is
acting beyond its jurisdiction by going against the due process of
law. Not content to breach international law by pursuing an
illegitimate war in Iraq, they are now disregarding their own
domestic courts."
Every hour Blair is dragging the UK closer towards a war that
the British people don't want. Day and night tanks and helicopters
are streaming though Marchwood as part of the build up of the
military machine. We are determined to do everything we can to stop
this headlong rush into a war that will only make the world a more
volatile and dangerous place.
A military attack on Iraq that could kill thousands of civilians
and increase the chances of weapons of mass destruction being used.
An attack on Iraq is clearly a barely disguised desire to take
control of Iraq's huge oil reserves.
Bush and Blair have cited Saddam Hussein's desire to acquire
weapons of mass destruction as justification for an invasion.
However, pre-emptive military strikes against states possessing or
suspected of possessing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons do
not provide a stable basis for controlling them. It would require
repeated armed interventions against numerous countries.
We believe the solution to weapons of mass destruction is
collective international arms control and disarmament. The
framework already exists, in the form of the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Biological Weapons Convention and
the Chemical Weapons Convention. But rather than being
strengthened, these global treaties are being undermined,
especially by the Bush administration.
We are opposed to war in Iraq, whether or not an attack is
sanctioned by the United Nations.
What you can do
If you believe that George Bush's war stance is based on
hypocritical arms policies and sticky oil connections, make your
voice heard.
Write to
the UN ambassadors that sit on the Security Council and ask them to
uphold international law and refuse to approve a war in
Iraq.
Write to
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and ask him to oppose war in Iraq and
to refuse to allow UK troops to be used in such a war.
If you live in the US, consider calling on your city council to
pass a resolution against a war with Iraq. Twenty cities across the
US have already passed similar resolutions and efforts are underway
in dozens more communities. For more information, visit, www.citiesforpeace.org.
Join our campaign against ExxonMobil/ Esso, the world's biggest
oil company. For more information, visit www.stopesso.org.
Get more ideas for getting involved from www.moveon.org , www.protest.net and www.targetoil.com.